Mail WWYD

[Clare]

If the postman accidently put your neighbour's mail in your box, what would you do with it?

[Cami]

I love "reading it and then giving it to the neighbor or mailman!" :lol: Do people (your neighbors, Clare?) actually do that?!

Long ago when I lived in an apartment, I had a neighbor who always read my magazines and then stuck them in my box. :angry2:

[sheila]

I either stick them in my neighbors' mailboxes or hand deliver them. (without reading them)

[Jayne]

I either stick them in my neighbors' mailboxes or hand deliver them. (without reading them)

Yep. This is what I do. It happens all the time here. Things get stuck. I live next door to a flower shop, a doctors office and an exterminator (if you can believe all in a residential area!) We all end up with each others mail often but it isn't a big deal!


Sorry about your answer Sheila (one up) I hit edit instead of quote.

[Melissa]

I would either return it by hand or put it in their box without opening. In the US that is a Federal Offense to open someone else's mail.

[stass]

I like to put it back in my mailbox so the mail carrier can see what he did and fix it. :lol:

[MrsPeacefrog]

I normally take it over there by hand if they aren't home I pop it in there letterbox.

One of my old neighbours years ago used to send it back "return to sender" I used to live in a villa house which had 66a and 66b we used to always have our mail switched, I would correct it, but the bitch that lived infront of us would send our mail BACK.. IDIOT! I used to get so pissed about that! I was happy to move from there!

[MrsPeacefrog]

Oh I thought I better add, that I have accidently opened their mail once, I didn't look at who it was addressed to I was just on automatic pilot and opening up all my mail and it wasn't till I started reading it that I realised it wasn't for me :blush:

[TtownAnne]

Just give it to the addressee without opening. I wouldn't want someone opening my mail! (although, we have gotten mail addressed for #63 in the next street over, and that I just give back to the mailman because I don't know the people, so don't want to seem like a weirdo just showing up at their door!)

[kelbelle]

I just hand deliver it or if it happens frequently, in a short period of time, I'll put it back in the mailbox so the mail carrier sees it.

[magoo]

It happens to us fairly frequently. We have group boxes that are locked, so I just take it over in person. :)

[Karri]

I either stick them in my neighbors' mailboxes or hand deliver them. (without reading them)

Same here.

[BonnieG]

I would also usually stick them in the mailbox or hand deliver them, w/o reading them of course. Right before we moved, our nosy neighbor came to my door and said she didn't notice that this was our mail until after she had opened it...she said she didn't read it of course...it just happened to be our BANK STATEMENTS!

Yeah, I really believe her!

[LISA]

It's a daily occurance here, I should get a job at Canada Post!:rolleyes: dh almost alway's takes the mail over to whomever it belongs to but if it's a neighbour a block away I just write "delivered to wrong address" on the front and throw it back in the mailbox. I would never open anyone elses mail but if it's a postcard your darn tootin I'm reading it :lol:

[Bridget]

I have to put it back in our mailbox because none of the houses here are numbered, so it's hard to tell who has what address. We have hand delivered things when we could tell who they were for, although it's amazing how most people just stare at you and don't even say thanks. Yes, we have a lot of experience with misdelivered mail.

I have to say, I think a lot of people read it. I got a paystub that was misdelivered and the person taped it shut and then put it in our box. :rolleyes:

[Bev]

It happens to us fairly frequently. We have group boxes that are locked, so I just take it over in person. :)

I only ever get the wrong mail for one particular person with the same house number but the next street over. Mostly I'm too lazy to drop it off (often I'm in the car and can't be bothered to stop!) but now that Mason, Jinx and I walk to check the mail then I will be more likely to take it to the house.

I picked put it in the mailbox without reading it, since that's what I do most often. :)

[Michal]

We have been living in our house for two years, and we are still getting the previous tenents mail! I collect their mail for a while then make a trip down to the post office with a stack of it. I just think it is odd that they never notified the post office about the change of address because some of the mail has been T4s and government cheques. :dunno:

[Nichole]

What a coincidence this is! We hardly ever have misdelivered mail, but just happened to get a big stack of our next door neighbor's mail in our box this weekend. I just walked over and stuck it in his mailbox, because he wasn't home.

[AmyP]

I generally just put it back in our mailbox and write "mis-delivered mail" or something on it. If I'm going to the PO anyway, I'll drop it there. We get a lot for people at the same house number, but a different street. I'd drop it off but I don't know them and don't want to show up at their door. I've had a few things where it was my address but not for us, and I opened them without thinking. I taped them shut and just wrote "addressee unknown" on it. I think the previous owners had a company and we've gotten one or two pieces addressed to that company even though I don't think it exists anymore.

We still get stuff from Italy for the guy who died who lived here (we bought the house from his widow) and we just throw it away. It appears to be some newsletter. I tried going to their website but I couldn't understand Italian and the translator didn't make any sense so I just keep throwing the stuff away.

For a while we got stuff for the lady we bought from and I would occasionally put her address on it and say "Doesn't live here, please forward to xyz address" but I stopped that awhile ago. We've lived here for four years. If anybody is still sending her stuff here, they obviously aren't real close to her.

[Mary DK]

I usually just deliver it by hand.

Oh I thought I better add, that I have accidently opened their mail once, I didn't look at who it was addressed to I was just on automatic pilot and opening up all my mail and it wasn't till I started reading it that I realised it wasn't for me :blush:
This happened to me once too, I couldn't understand what it was about until I realized that it was not our name on it :shuffle:

[Nichole]

Oops, I just realized that we do occasionally get the previous owner's mail still. In the beginning, I forwarded anything that looked important to him (we have his new address). But now I'm sick of his not taking care of taking care of his own forwarding, so I just mark it 'Return to Sender' now. :lol: (it's usually junk)

[pam]

What a coincidence! We just picked up our mail. We had seven pieces of mail for a neighbor with an address that is one digit different from ours. Since we have group mail boxes, I started putting their mail into the outgoing mailbox then stopped. We'd had many mistakes a few months ago & then again today that I'm going to call the post office to let them know then I will hand deliver what I didn't put into the mail box. Our mail would show up at our front door & other peoples mail would end up in ours (with different addresses & streets).

[Karri]

Oops, I just realized that we do occasionally get the previous owner's mail still. In the beginning, I forwarded anything that looked important to him (we have his new address). But now I'm sick of his not taking care of taking care of his own forwarding, so I just mark it 'Return to Sender' now. :lol: (it's usually junk)

Dood - you're too nice :lol:

Wherever we've lived, if I've gotten the previous owner's mail, I just write, "no longer lives @ this address" and then stick it in the box. The PO can figure out WTF to do with it. If you're not a big boy/girl and can't change your address, then tough titties. Junk mail for previous owners doesnt even get my time - it goes straight to el trashbin.

[Eva]

This happens all the time to us. If it is on our street, I just put it in their mailbox. If it is on the other block (Happens a lot) I just put it half out of our maibox so the mailman can see it the next day.

[Jenn]

I have been known to throw it away. :shuffle: In my defense though, I don't throw away important stuff, just junk mail. We get the double whammy of the next door neighbor having lived at our house before so we actually get their mail with our address on it. :rolleyes: We also still occassionally get the previous owner's stuff. I've done numerous things depending on my mood of the day. :blush: I've written 'not at this address', I've hand delivered to the next door neighbor and I've thrown some things (junk) away.

[Nichole]

Karri, I also write "not at this address" too, just in the hope that the junk mail people will get a clue and quit clogging our mailbox with someone else's junk. :lol: (Plus, it makes me feel good to think that they have to pay to deal with their crap again. :devil: :lol: ) It has gotten better, so I think it might be working.

[TtownAnne]

My ILs still get newsletters in German for the woman they bought their house from in the 1960s. She's long dead, no longer a member of this association, hasn't paid dues, but they keep sending the newsletter! :lol:

IWe still get stuff from Italy for the guy who died who lived here (we bought the house from his widow) and we just throw it away. It appears to be some newsletter. I tried going to their website but I couldn't understand Italian and the translator didn't make any sense so I just keep throwing the stuff away.

[Michele]

I usually just put it back in the mailbox w/ "does not live at this address" on it. We still get a ton of stuff from the woman who lived here before us. Including letters from her kid's school and his report card. :wtf: On that one I called the school and left a message about it, but we still get their stuff.

In our old place I opened our neighbor's mail by accident, and it happened to be a credit card bill. In my defense we have the same first name, and our last name starts with the same letter, so not paying attention, I opened it. I was mortified to have to give her an opened bill, but I didn't want to have to throw it away since it was important.

[Clare]

After I posted this poll, I realised that you have a different system in the US so it's a bit different. Our mailman doesn't take our outgoing mail, only delivers incoming. We have to take outgoing mail to the PO. So we don't have the option of the writing "return to sender" or whatever and putting back in our box, we have to make an effort to return it.

We've been waiting for a cheque from our accountant for weeks. They insisted that they mailed it on 26July but it hadn't arrived (mail within the city only takes 1 or 2 days). Finally last week, they cancelled the cheque and issued a new one. Yesterday, the mailman delivered the original cheque. It had been opened and taped back up with "delivered to 6 **** ave by mistake". That is only a couple of streets away. I can't believe that they opened my mail and then had to go past my house to take it back to the PO. Why not drop it in my mailbox? Seeming as they read it, they obviously knew it was important! :rolleyes: It just didn't make any sense to me. If their mail was put in my box, I would either walk it over to their house, or drop it off next time I was driving by :dunno:

[Eva]

Our mailman doesn't take our outgoing mail, only delivers incoming.

Our mail man does not take our outgoing mail either but they will take it if they screw up or if it is a "no longer adress" type of thing. For mail we send, we have to put it in the public mailbox they collect from or bring it to the post office.

[MrsPeacefrog]

Clare: That is so bloody annoying! it definatley does not make any sense at all, I can understand accidently opening a letter as I have done that before, but if she had to go PAST your house to get to the post office or box then why not just pop it in your letterbox? what a weirdo!

I was also going to say what you said about the outgoing mail thing. I was confused at the comments about putting it back in your own box.

Here our letterbox's are completely closed and most of them locked, it is a virtual impossibility for the mailman to get back into it once the letters are popped into the slot.

For those that do have mailmen who collect outgoing mail, how do you keep your box protected from mail theft?